ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Summer 2026 is the hottest since 1950, with an average temperature across the national territory of 24,3°C two meters from the ground. The Institute for Bioeconomics of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ibe).
2026 saw the temperatures of all months up to August, compared to the previous year. In August, the highest level was recorded, with an average temperature of 25.6 centigrade degrees and a thermal anomaly of +5.2°C compared to the average temperature in August of 1951-1980 (equal to 20.4 degrees) and +3.5°C compared to the average of August of 1991-2020 climatology (equal to 22.1).
“The average of 25.6 degrees Celsius recorded in August 2026 exceeds the previous record of 24,6°C of 2024 and 24°C reached in August 2017,” says researcher Cnr-Ibe Lorenzo Arcidiaco (cf. Average temperature chart per month of August). “The data suggests that 2026 can end as the hottest year since 1950. The Heat Map, which represents a monthly average temperature ranking from that year to today, show for the first time consecutively July and August hottest ever.” “This year already in spring a record average temperature was reached for the season – 12,1 degrees two meters from the ground – equal to that recorded in 2024, the hottest year since 1950”, continues the researcher Cnr-Ibe.
In the period January-August, the percentage of national territory with abnormalities of temperatures above a degree increases to about 70%; and about 40% the percentage of national territory with abnormalities above two degrees (cf. Percentage of territory with anomalies of average temperatures monthly above different thresholds): “The surfaces exposed to thermal abnormalities are very significant, with a concentration in the plain areas of the north-west and Apennines”, notes Arcidiaco. “A large part of this is cultivated surfaces that, exposed to a higher temperature and in some areas at a drought period, causes the primary sector to be the most affected.”.
The GSOD (Global Summary of the Day) and OGIMET (based mainly on NOAA data) regarding Rome, Florence and Turin, which in June, July and August 2026 were all three hits several times by heat waves, i.e. periods in which the maximum temperatures exceeded 90th percentile for at least six consecutive days.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
